Rogue Trader: Ad Astra

Downfall of Dross and Scourge

Arrive at Dross a couple of hours out and find out it is a large cloud
Cloud has electrical discharge and other dangers
Inside the cloud is a planet and 2 moons
Able to identify that there are a number of wrecks in the gas cloud
Lots of electrical discharge (lightning storms)
Functional ship – light cruiser class vessel

Identify the ship as we close
Name: Hammer of Truth
Leader: Janko Scourge
– How the hell did he get here?!
– They are in high orbit of the planet
– Since we notice they started moving to the other side of the planet
– Party wants to attack them but Garret and Charlabel disagree
– Garret says it is not honourable essentially
– Charlabel believes they can become a tool

We open a channel with Janko Scourge
He is here trying to recover a component of the map
He is extremely irritated right now because the planet is useless for him to take over
Velonia was able to tell that the storms are not natural occurring or mundane in nature
Hakon asks Garret and Charlabel for what we should offer Scourge for the information on how he knew how to go to Dross
Hakon offers to give location of void kracken near hive world
Scourage loves this idea and is fine with the trade
Scourge gives us what he has on the planet
Feckward has an alliance to go out and collect from the planets
Fel is in alliance
Scourge is kind of a dumb ass….Hammer…of Truth…super dumb ass.
Wishes us luck and transmission ends
End up calling him up and discussing that he haven’t found anything
Scourge yells and foams at the mouth for 60 seconds
Sits back down very aggressively
Hakon extends a second offer
If Scourge’s allies turn against him because he has nothing he will need a plan B
Hakon offers to be this plan B, but he would need to be at the meeting
Hakon goes in drops mic, Ottagunda says “SICKBURRRRRN” and the transmission ends

We tell him he needs to leave or help us
We acquire communications for his ground teams
We fly down to the lower atmosphere which does not have lots of storms
We land safely on a sand dune with a cave under it
Sand dune:
6 km wide
cave under it
formed by remnants of massive spherical object
shapes give evidence that it might have been the hull of something
We find out there is an old ork crashed ship along with vicious eldar temples on the surface
We find a lander ship
The things hanging on the ship have organic signatures…old bodies, at least a few weeks
The bodies are hung in a disturbing pattern
Find many symbols painted on the wall with a red substance
A great eagle stylized above warriors with intricate lines and patterns
devotional painting made of blood of about 18 people
depiction is derived from the Imperium
Lander itself is very old, not archeotech old, but ancient
Go into the cave system following movement of people
Before going into battle, Lysander placed a charge on the wall of the canyon that was a small entrance into a wider chamber
Climbed the cavern to try to get into a better position
Figures got into position and launched arrows at us…..arrows….fucking arrows….haha…hahahahahahahha
These primitive humans were thus filled with bullets very quickly
The charge on the entrance was exploded as we fought the primitive humans
They surrounded us
Braun fired ….well fire into the sky and exclaimed they should lay down their arms in the name of the god emperor
They screamed something about sky fathers and rushed us with spears
A woman in very ornate looking clothing and having a staff comes into the fray and yells “CEASE”
Lightning arises from her hand as she shocks some of the people attacking us
This = Psyker
Removes her mask, revealing much scarring and warpaint
Her name is Asira the Stormspeaker
She says we may be a great help to her quest
The people of this world were abonded on this world many years ago
When all the people unite, the storms will lift and they will go to find more fertile land
She believes it is her destiny to unite all the clans and that she was gifted her powers by the sky father
She goes to talk to the council and we talk to the Astropath of Scourge
Astropath tells us the storms are linked to the Nexus
Able to determine that the Nexus itself controls the storms and can be affected
To calm the storms an Psycher is needed in the Nexus
The Astropath has the map in his brain
Astropath joins the away team and his name is Marcillis

…

We plan to have Asira control the storms and then later kill her from orbit or with a ‘gift’ because she is a powerful Psyker who is unregulated
Asira wants us to grant her some assistance
She requires assistance in the demonstration of smiting her enemies from our sky vessel
– “Wrath of the Sky Father”
She wants to convince her people that she is the high priestess and that the other people have taken too long to unify and that the Sky Father is angry and she is in charge
She wants us to destroy landmarks
She has a navigator …but not a navigator, he is an old man who navigates thing
We must use our steel beast to use carry her to the nexus
Drop temples are a thing that we need, we have determined this…just DROPTEMPLES

… Other scheming takes place …

Found some sort of a shotgun, looks like a club with barrels instead of a shotgun
Found an array of sight apparatuses, seems to be a possible eldar design, but is synergistic of a couple of technological elements
Found an eldar combi tool
– Hakon is fiddling with it
Found a sword sticking up out of the ground
Has evil aura
Is a very nice power sword
Human made
Leaves some sort of residue that corrodes metal
We get to temple
Asira puts her hands on the temple and the storms pass
We head back up to the ship and Hakon sits down with Garret
Garret thought he was propositioning him
Hakon is horrified and is meant to talk about Scourge
Garret has no problem with it, just will not be a part of it
We get back to the Redemption bridge
Open communications with Janko
“So as it turns out things are complicated…” says Hakon
Janko: Beard rustles angrily
“We are keeping your astropath”
Statement was ineffective against Janko
Janko responds with “where was the talk of teamwork”
Hakon was uninterested
Hakon states he will not relinquish the map piece and offers alliance
Janko continues to glower
Janko activates ANGRYEYEBROWRUSTLING
Hakon gave ultimatum, join or die
Janko leans and says he cannot stand people who are not direct and attacks as he foams at the mouthACTUALNON-CONVERSATIONALBATTLEBEGINS
Hit and run succeeds and the engines are crippled on the Hammer of Truth
Scourge attempts to run away as we attempt to follow
A fierce gun fight breaks out and leads into a daring boarding action
Scourge comes out into the field to play and starts hurting, but hits Hakon with a pipe
IT WASSUPEREFFECTIVE
Hakon’s armor was dislocated and he was in massive pain
Braun took the lead and started attacking Scourge
Braun hits the fuck out of Scourge as Scourge’s plasma pistol overheats
By “hits the fuck out of”, I mean cuts of his arm and stabs an axe through Scourge’s throat….very dead
Find out that the astropath choir is freaked out and we have Marcillis try to fix them, but it will be obvious something happened to them
We bomb the temple with a nova cannon and a third of the planet receives a strong dose of radiation
– the other part is nuclear winter
Hakon and Bron say prayers for all those who died on the planet
It was not effective
Taking the Hammer of Truth with us
We choose to go to the closest space location

COLONYLOGISTICSTIME

Nova Reliquary
+1 Profit Factor Now
+1 Treasure when we go back to the planet

Geode
Dedicate harvests to keep it from shrinking

We recieve an astropath message that Marcillis brings to us
It is a note from Geode from Carius
Message: Acute environmental emergency….colony survives, please send armed men and resources to deal with infestation

Corhola sends message that bloody cogs have given us no more trouble and that the defense ships have been repaired
We delegate to Corhola to deal with the problems on Geode

We make course towards our empty space location
We estimate it will be an 18 day trip
Uncomfortably uneventful route
whispers in the hull
light fixtures are fresh and things are okay…

We come out of the Warp with only 3 days of passage in time
3 days of cruising pass and we are in the location designated by the map and find a rift
It is not just a warp rift, it is a gateway
A tear in space
We all board the Maximus Gambit (Garret’s ship) and head through the rift

More Temples and ROCKS

- Descent into crater begins and rocks fall, hurting many, and killing several
- Garret’s navigator died in the rock fall
- One of the land ships begin heading towards our direction on the surface
- Hakon makes jury-rigged radio to contact Redemption
- Contact shows that the cities are fighting around the away team
– may not know we are here
– They are heading towards a point where a dust storm is
– Dust storm is 3 km away from us
– Issue: Land ships are more than 3 km in radius
– Probably something in the dust storm
- Land ships do not respond to hails from the Redemption
- Fighting continues as the away team descends further
- Find bone in the rock and discover a weirdly symmetrical structure.
- Find the disk of a chart with a crystal in the center
- Valonia finds a part of the map when working on the chart and adds it to one of the baby skulls
- Hakon looks for signs of others being there and no one else has been here for a millennia
- Plan to blow up the location as we head back up to the shuttle
- Tanks are heading towards our shuttle
- Redemption reports that the land ships have both deployed land units that move towards our location
- Redemption fires EMP charges down towards the tanks
– A ship crashes down into the cavern
– Hakon’s radio broke
- Get back up to the ship
– Ship was under yellow tarp
- Getting ready to leave in the ship and crew cannot get it to work
– Hakon gets the ship to work
– Wait for demolitions team that blew up the temple to get to the ship
- Take off and enemy surface ships engage us
- Fly into canyon to lose them
- Velonia takes storm bolter to knock off rocks off the wall
- Others shoot towards the crafts
- One craft gets taken out of order by the falling rocks and has to pull up out of the canyon with smoke and fire
- The other craft maintains course
- The other craft manages to shoot down our ship
- The ship pulls up out of the cannon, clips the right wing with one engine destroyed
- Ship blows up and everyone is harmed
- Ship crashed in the dust storm
– Lysander’s arm if blown up
– Lysander’s armor is no longer sealed
- Garret is unconscious
- Charlabel is frazzled, but gets to her feel
– Her navigator transferred into the warp and then back, completely unharmed
- Notice a sign of another crashed vessel
– Spot the vessel about 100 feet in front of us
– Has red paint with a silver mechanicus emblem on it
- Get in mechanicus ship and fire upon some enemies out the window
– Those enemies became blood piles
- Fire up the ship and get ready to take off
- Decrypted data slate from dead mechanicus
– Find out the people of this planet are called Xathians
– The Xathians want to have melta weapons to study to make large scale melta weapons
– Land trains might have advanced loading systems for macro batteries
- Get back aboard the Redemption
- Fire Lance Batteries upon canyon, but before it happened, the Banshee appears (Armanguard)
- Armanguard tells us that all the pirates are hard to find and the Corta is looking for pirates,
but now is trying to hire the rogue traders during the rush in the sector
- We should think about becoming Corta’s enemy that she wants dead
- Choose to head to Naporious next
– WARPFUNTIMES
- Landed on Naporious and were told to drink water by the tribe king
- Very primitive people
- Found out something was wrong with the water and refused to drink it
- King was very heretical so Braun lit him on fire
- We killed an entire tribe and a missionary was left alive
– The battle was Killing Floor level bloody
- They need to get the people of this planet healthy water
- We make a base camp and start the plan to ascend the mountain
- Land 10 km away from the peak
- Bring the damaged missionary with us and tells us the tank will awaken a giant curse that we cannot defeat
– So we go by foot instead
- As we climb we are told to stay quiet by our guide, stubbers are activated, rocks fall, and we continue
- Braun is grabbed by the mountain
- Ottagunda attacks the rocks with an aether blade but it does nothing to it
- Braun breaks free and attacks along with Lysander shooting leaving the rocks hissing at both
– ROCKSHISSING! ssssssssssssssssss
– PETROCKMUSTHAVE
- As we fight the rocks they try to make themselves look intimidating
– They expand and combine and attempt to intimidate us
– They do not intimidate us
– ROCKMONSTER IS FLUFFYANDADORABLE
– It has been bisected and scattered and broken by Braun
- We killed the rocks, gained the map and Lysander gained a pet rock like he said he would
- Decide to go to Dross next

Tried to kill a giant insect on the planet
– Navigator got injured and got cybernetic spine and cyberjack

Shot planet to try to clear the way
Got the Liberator from Garret to modify in the laboratory
– Worried about what we will do to the Liberator
– Liberator is a very well armoured ATV / Tank

Hailed by Sharlabel to inquire why we were bombing the surface
– In her Transporter
– She is rushed
– Looked to us for a deal to work together with us
– Wants to split with us and explore with us
– Willing to negotiate
– Offering a team of most adept bushmen

Another storm on the planet appeared
Used auguries on storm
Couple kilometers long and has a long path
Tries to block access of landing craft

Hakon told Sharlabel that this is probably not the treasure planet
– Agreed to split the cache on the surface
– Sharlabel has kroot that we will be working with
– Shaper Aurak Kurrack leader of kroot squad
– Did not forgot the kindness we bestowed upon them

Head off to fleet bridge and all that we have mapped on the planet to share with our new allies
– Top speed of Liberator is approximately over good terrain 70 km/h
– Can assume half that for the terrain we are using
– Can make trip last 3 hours instead of a week possibly

Garret’s pilot was a navy dog fighter, but Lysander is probably still better
– Garret’s pilot is a better pilot then Sharlabel’s

Fly down to the surface in cramped quarters with kroot in the chambers
– Landed 10 km away from temple
– Braun cooks a raw chicken wing when a kroot offered it to him and all the kroot stare at him
– Hakon orders Braun to stop doing that
– Lots of ash and forest fires dot the land
– Speed slows down to 10 – 20 kph since knocking down lots of trees
– Ottagunda stayed up at the Redemption in case anything happens
– Kroot on top of vehicle yells to look out
– Edge of the dozer blade clips a landmine
– Vehicle rocks to the side and comes back down
– Vehicle has issues and Garret screams as something breaks
– Now 1-2 km from temple, within line of sight
– Front wheel is damaged, but vehicle we are leaving here
– We spread out and check out mines to make sure they are not anti-infantry
– Kroot disarms mine by shoving a knife in it
– Mines are anti-vehicle mines of imperial designs
– Kroot disarm mines like they separate femurs
– Veteran kroot apparently know how to disarm land mines with knifes
– Hakon was hit by a bullet and then there was a crack heard
– Hakon was shot in the clavicle
– Perhaps that traps lied in our wake were from Imperials very recently
– Kroot fans out and tries to find sniper
– Lysander aids Braun in healing Hakon

Sharlabel
– Fell is a scrupulous type that would do this
– Feckward is a slave trader / scum

- Radio from Redemption tells of a ship arriving about half a day out
– It is Son Lee’s ship

- Shots come out from the trees in the distance
- Sharlabel has a harlequins kiss
- Cannot see the thing that is shooting at us
- Auspex scan takes place to try and identify shooter
– Kroot seemed to hone in, in the correct direction towards shooters
- Continue to navigate through the woods with bird like cheers in the background
- Shaper and a couple of his mates come back dragging a body
– Engaged and took out many of them but drove the sniper away
– Body brought back was not alive
- Asks to bring a prisoner
– Kroot do not seem to like taking live prisoners
– After 2 minutes they bring back a live prisoner
- Hakon questions prisoner after Kroot back off after they intimidated him
- Appears to have 3 fingers bitten off and gun missing from boot, because Kroot are awesome
- Prisoner questioning begins
– Prisoner is working for Rockin Feckward
– Stealth device glows and helps ships get down on surface quietly
– Ships located at base of the temple
– Sniper was Feckward himself and he ran away
– Ships are guarded with Heavy Bolter Turrets

- Woosh and great crackling in the air
– All the vines and things are knocked from the temple and great light comes from the temple
– Purple light emanates from the temple
– Building is being pulled into the warp

- Prisoner is eaten by Kroot after being shot by Hakon
- Sprint towards temple
- Velonia spots 6 figures at the top of the temple (50 meters above us – about 75 m away)
– We need to get rid of the people performing the ritual
– Braun attempts to climb up the temple towards them.
– Everyone else attempts to shoot them.
– 2 of them break off from the ritual and take cover
– Others are not within our line of sight
– No visible door into the temple in our area so we begin to climb
– Order of ascent: Braun, Hakon, Garret, Sharlabel, Lysander, Velonia
– After climbing we are faced with 6 masked figures
– Alien masked helmets
– Most definitely Eldar
– Braun struck with flames shot out of the Eldar’s hands
– Garret gets badly hurt by being stabbed in the shoulder
– Etc, etc, etc, battle, battle, blah, blah, blah, we were hurt, they got dead
– They all die, and the energy dissipates from the temple.
– Runic carvings are in the temple and blood is pouring through them
– They are not normal, but they are readable star charts
– Focus on 7 objects, represented by gemstones
– One has had a gemstone seared out of it, seemed to be the center one
– Each of them has a line of connection of mysterious device towards the center object
– Velonia deciphers things for a few hours
– Extends alliance until we discover the dread pearl
– The 6 places either point to the dread pearl or are linked to it
– We have 6 specific locations from it, and a general space location for the center location
– The 6 locations link to the dread pearl and probably have locations of them
– Velonia cannot read Eldar signs so cannot get all the information
– The 6 locations we can navigate to
– Hakon tests the Shuriken pistol and decides it can be useful to figure out how it works
– First time he took xenos technology to analyze
– Takes several to take apart and analyze
– Blow the map and try to find Feckward’s shuttle and turrets
– Messaged Kroot to find out results of survey
– Found one and blew it up
– Retrieved loot from it before
– Found a big and bone gemstone thing attached to the engine
– Eldar ghost drive
– Retrieve the shuttle and its ghost drive
– Parks the shuttle in the laboratorium
– Velonia is now able to make charts of parts of the Heathen stars
– 2 spots are in deep space
– 4 are planets
– 3 are known planets
– Zaith: planet is fairly close to the entrance to the heathen stars
– full of war and weird shit
– only one that has a stable warp route
– Naporius: visited 2 or 3 times from rogue traders
– arid with human civilization
– Rogue traders thought not profitable, toxic water
– Manage to purify the water, but they only really produce copper
– Dross: explored once
– Never found again
– No other notes
– any attempts to find it again, and failed
– 4th planet is not known
– Information says that all planets should have information to the seventh planet

- First we have a meeting with Garret and Sharlabel
– Recovering from their injuries
– Garret thinks it is dangerous for us to split up
– Hakon proposes all going together
– Sharlabel says Zaith is a known system, others will be stopped there
– Will be explored even though others will not know what they are looking for
– Meaning they will probably not find it
– Hakon’s worry is that they will find us and follow us or attack us
– Decide we may as well get to Zaith there first and then go to deep space to avoid tracking
– As a fleet we head off to Zaith

Zaith:
– Human civilization before Great Crusade
– Some point during isolation got into massive war that destroyed entire planet
– Thermonuclear fire rained down
– Had to do with land ships that are city sized walking cathedrals
– Most of the life has been killed
– Seas have boiled away
– Only really have the mobile cities raiding temples in an ash wasteland and killing each other
– Cathedrals have guns that can shoot back into space
– Equivalently are ships that walk on land

Scan the planet
– Able to spot a signature within a 20 km radius similar to the temple from before

Go down to explore the planet and know that the temple is on the surface
– Take down Garret’s transport ship with the Liberator to go explore
– Looking in the bed of a large, now gone, sea
– Hakon and Garret had a bonding period with preparing the Liberator
– Sharlabel finds them both a bit weird
– Within a day we come to a ravine and we find THEMAGNIFICENTTHING
– It is within a couple ten of kilometers within the massive land ships that are exchanging fire
– Found an ocean cavern (no longer in an ocean)

I liked the condition my ship was in

Pilot’s Log, 31.817.M41

Today was…..eventful and disheartening. Our ship, The Redemption, she was hurt. I felt her pain as explosions and lasers lashed at her beautiful body. I thought we could take on anything, but today proved otherwise. We had to run. It’s all because we had to pick up that damn governor, lying coward….He was going to blow us up with a nuke! A fucking nuke! You know a normal bomb could have worked fine, but the idiot used a nuke! The worst part: It didn’t blow up! Well that’s not the bad part, the disappointment was we didn’t get to use it.

Our diplomacy today was seen as odd, I mean it is odd, but still Hakon knows what he is doing….I think. His ettiquite when talking to people doesn’t make much sense to me from how I have seen Ottagunda conduct himself. Although if I had to pick I would probably……always agree with the captain. Ottagunda feels like he is speaking a different language then everybody else. He spat words at one of the Chorda’s other allies today. It was entertaining to say the least. Hakon on the other hand seems to ….offend other people sometimes with his incessant chewing of snacks while talking to…well most everyone…..also entertaining to watch. I let them do the talking since they let me do the piloting on these majestic ships.

The Good news today is we got off a Nova cannon shot, god I love seeing my girl shoot that thing, and it blew up one of Chorda’s god damn lackeys. Haha that commander was the one getting too cocky with us too, luckily Hakon knew how to put them in their place. Still hurts to see the good boys and girls that ferry us around blowing up like that and not getting to scavenge anything or take them for ourselves, we would take much better care of them.

I have been honored to be aboard a ship with a commander like Hakon who takes care of the ship and tries first to steal ships….I mean I know he’s trying to rebuild his fleet, but I am just comfortable being surrounded with such quality ships AND we get new interesting archeotech for them sometimes too.

Overall I guess today didn’t go too badly. We at least got a map out of it that may be of use to us, but the commander said we may have to hand it over to Winterscale. If it comes to it, I understand, but I don’t like giving that man many things…..he is….odd. At least when we get there the Redemption and Hope can get repaired.

The adventure log is where you list the sessions and adventures your party has been on, but for now, we suggest doing a very light “story so far” post. Just give a brief overview of what the party has done up to this point. After each future session, create a new post detailing that night’s adventures.

One final tip: Don’t stress about making your Obsidian Portal campaign look perfect. Instead, just make it work for you and your group. If everyone is having fun, then you’re using Obsidian Portal exactly as it was designed, even if your adventure log isn’t always up to date or your characters don’t all have portrait pictures.